Designing the Accelerate Conference

The following are materials were designed for Accelerate, a conference in Nashville for Dave Ramsey’s Real Estate ELP’s (“Endorsed Local Providers.”) Attendees come from all over the country for this two-day event in 2016, which was the second year the event had been held.

The branding guidelines for Accelerate were loosely formulated by a designer on the Ramsey Solutions creative team sometime in late 2015 after the inaugural Accelerate conference, but the branding was never implemented anywhere. The designer who created it it also left the team, so much of the interpretation of the brand was left up to me. I was given a few colors, fonts, a map texture/overlay, and some layout ideas using overlapping triangles.

Creating and designing materials for this event was a challenge because there were no templates to follow and the brand was new and untested. Everything designed for the inaugural year of the event (2015) needed to be redone and re-thought, in addition to re-branded. While these projects were challenging, the opportunity to build out a new brand was very exciting, and a big responsibility. I was the only designer working on branded materials for the event.

Event Guide

The Accelerate event guide is a 44 page information booklet and workbook. The layout was up to my discretion but was modeled after other successful Ramsey event workbooks. I was also able to add new elements to the Accelerate brand, such as the icons on the sidebars of the workbook.

I went through 5 rounds of drafts before arriving at the final design, which was received extremely well by both the attendees and staff. Dave Ramsey himself even made a point to applaud the design of the book from the stage during the event!

Conclusion:

It was a big responsibility to juggle a 44-page workbook and all of the event materials, but I did it all with the help of the team at Dave Ramsey, who helped to manage projects, edit copy, approve designs and complete orders. Projects like these are successful because everyone works together.

Compared to the 2015 event materials (example below), the overall design of the event was a huge success. The event felt more professional, more cohesive, and more intentional. Signage was more clear and was designed to be used again (saving money!). Materials were cost-effective and functional for the attendees.